Figures like Tolkien and Lewis were part of a circle at Oxford known as the Inklings. The group formed around Tolkien in 1926 with the intent of reading sagas and myths in Icelandic. Lewis started out as a staunch atheist, and was converted to Catholicism partly through the efforts of Tolkien.
Tag: Catholicism
Wednesday December 9, 2020
We’re seeking new practices, and a proper space in which to meditate, as churches and temples were for our ancestors. My grandmother prayed before statues. She built a stone grotto with a statue of Mary, and across from it a stone bench on which to sit, in a corner of her backyard. Hers was a magical world full of prayer beads, statues, jewelry, and shrines. She attended Catholic masses. I wish to honor her memory by creating a sanctum of some sort — a space akin to the meditation room at my previous home. I should try sitting in the loft above the garage, or outdoors, or in the sun room. Either that or I’ll just continue to recite mantras and prayers silently in bed each morning (as I have each morning since the move). Perhaps I should read some Thomas Merton. Or just observe His Dark Materials, with its magical, pluriversal cosmology mapped out Game of Thrones-style in its opening credits.
Trance-Scripts 